StigmaWatch is receiving more and more reports about media coverage of hoarding, as the Australian media and public learn more about the disorder.
The Wentworth Courier has contributed to balanced reporting on the illness with its article 'Booblas house highlights issues of how hoarding disorder is diagnosed and treated'.
Some locals in the Bondi area were concerned that prior reporting about this particular hoarded house reflected a wider misunderstanding of hoarding disorder.
Journalist Robbie Patterson from the Wentworth Courier spoke to psychologist and SANE helpline manager Yvonne Santen to gain more insight into the experience of someone with the disorder.
“Generally people who are hoarding have a lack of awareness, so they have given meaning to the things they are collecting and they serve a purpose,” Ms Santen said in the article. “So it might be a problem for everyone else around them but for them it’s not a problem.”
StigmaWatch commends the Wentworth Courier and Patterson for exploring the complexity of hoarding disorder.
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